THE Prince of Wales did not feel in the least sheepish about donning a black tie, leaving his wife at home and going to the inaugural dinner of his new club at the Ritz last night.

Ever the friend of the struggling farmer, the Prince has become patron of the Mutton Renaissance Club, a body dedicated to restoring elderly sheep meat to its rightful place on the national menu. You can probably guess what they had to eat.

John Williams, head chef at the Ritz, conjured up Trilogy of Mutton Prince of Wales, three ways of cooking two-year old Ovis aries using meat from the Prince’s own farm at Highgrove and from producers in mid-Wales and Cumbria.

A sheep is regarded as a lamb until it is about 10 months old. It then becomes a hoggett, and at the age of 2 its flesh becomes mutton.

Most of us can take or leave mutton, the meat of old England until it was usurped by roast beef in the 18th century. The Prince takes it, even telling a group of schoolchildren this week that it was his favourite food.

Three years ago the Prince, hearing the complaints of farmers that they were getting poor prices for their mature ewes, and amid fears of an ovine form of BSE, helped to launch the Mutton Renaissance Campaign with a mutton dinner at Highgrove. Since then the campaign has had some success, with chefs from Gordon Ramsay to Jamie Oliver prepared to put in a good word for the meat, and famous restaurants such as Le Gavroche and the Ritz willing to put it on the menu.

John Thorley, of the National Sheep Association, a guest at last night’s dinner, said: “Over the past year mutton has gained a following in pockets across the country. However, there is much more to do. It is clear that some chefs are being asked to pay a relatively high price for mutton, but few farmers are seeing an uplift in returns.”

The dinner brought together most of the estimated 200 farmers, restaurateurs, butchers and slaughterers in Britain who are now rearing, selling and serving mutton, a meat widely recognised as fattier but with a much gamier flavour than lamb.

Mutton fell out of fashion in Britain after the Second World War. Falling wool prices led to there being fewer older ewes around to butcher for meat, and consumers became used to year-round lamb, whether frozen from New Zealand or fresh from a Welsh hillside. Mutton has since suffered from the reputation of being cheap but tough.

Last night’s dinner was an attempt to re-establish the supply chain and to improve mutton’s image. Celebrity chefs have been recruited to explain how it is best cooked: slow in a casserole, with garlic, parsley and onions.

The British will still take some convincing; they eat 120 million lamb chops every year, but not many mutton chops. Even the most ardent champions of the older sheep concede that it will never have more than a niche market.

On the other hand. we probably eat far more mutton than we realise. It is not unknown, in some less discriminating restaurants, for it to arrive on the plate dressed as lamb.

FIT FOR A PRINCE

Welsh mountain mutton stew, boneless neck sautéed then oven-cooked with tomato purée, herbs, onions, garlic, leek, celery, carrot and fennel

Roast loin fillet of mutton, from the Prince’s own Lleyn Welsh breed at Highgrove, boned, de-fatted and cooked with vegetables and white wine

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